my sister -in- law , 98 forester 185,000mi a/t, , belt came off , no power steering , battery light on, did a search , seems it could be a worn crank pully key -way, what size of wrench does it take to loosen bolt, ? i have not seen the car yet , going shortly to take a look at it, the pully wobbles , , i have 2 crank pullies here to take along , but no key-way, which surely autozone or napa has ? thanks

my sister -in- law , 98 forester 185,000mi a/t, , belt came off , no power steering , battery light on, did a search , seems it could be a worn crank pully key -way, what size of wrench does it take to loosen bolt, ? i have not seen the car yet , going shortly to take a look at it, the pully wobbles , , i have 2 crank pullies here to take along , but no key-way, which surely autozone or napa has ? thanks

 

same size as a large deep well spark plug socket, 5/8s i think. take a breaker bar with you.

 

EDIT: it's 22mm or 7/8 not 5/8.

 

there are several good threads on the subject, do a search. (one this week in fact)

 

if the timing jumped, there could be bent valves.

Edited April 2, 201115 yr by johnceggleston

ok, thanks

not yet looked at it, but what i have been told , seems like bad crank pully , no over heating , or major oil leaks, , are the bolts easy to take out that holds the pully not the main bolt , trying to have all the right tools , because where it is no metric tools and outside, does the radiator fans have to be taken off ?

I am pretty sure the Forester is the tightest clearance to the fans and you do need to remove them to get a socket on the crank pulley bolt.

yes replaced crank pully and keyway, but had to stop , because had to go to work , going to replace both fan belts, will the timing be off ? or not, thanks

The crank pulley bolt is a 22MM. Mentioned above is 5/8" and that isn't big enough.

 

Be sure the key is pointed down when you remove the belt. I remove the cogged idler on the water pump. Then you can turn the shortblock over if you need to get the key back up on top and put the gear on. Then rotate back to the down position and put the timing belt back on.

 

If the tip of the key got torn its possible the end of the crank snout got damaged as well. Verify this isn't the case before proceeding. If it is call me, I can try to get you a kit to fix the crank and key from a local shop here in Denver that makes them.

 

You are going to have to compress the the tensioner. If its got a blue bearing and pivots(which is stock for this year), then you need to do so in a press, SLOWLY, over a 10 minute period put light pressure on. You can press it while its on the engine as well with a prybar but again, super slowly take over a minute to do its motion in this case. Finesse and patience required. Lots of people have done it too fast and pushed the oil past the seal. Later on this can cause the timing to jump, bend valves, etc. If in doubt put a new tensioner on.

 

DO NOT compress this tensioner in a vise.

The tensioner has to be compressed in a vertical position, to make it easy to understand. I used a c clamp,and just hung it from a wire in between turns as I did other things.

There is a small hole that goes through the tensioner. Find an allen key or nail that will go completely through it.

Once compressed put the tool in and do not remove until after the belt is reinstalled properly.

 

O.

ok, yes keyway is down , all else , thanks, going to finish job today, hopefully no damage was done, it looks like the crank pully bolt came loose, , nice 98 forester so i hope no damage,, the old crank pully did not come off just loose and the belt came off, the old key-way was still in place , but still did everything else

Edited April 2, 201115 yr by 86subaru

Good info as always Shawn. I just must be interested in that kit for future reference. I woulda always said new Subaru key and weld up the damage to the hub etc. It is surprising the key only extends 3/16-1/4" into the pully hub. Then again its been mentioned often thats mostly location and good compression against flat surfaces (with a lockant,at times) is the way. I was wondering if it was a variation of the woodruff key where it extends beyond the keyway damage. Don't answer if, well i was just curious.

fuzload

got it all back togather runs fine now bad radiator ,

now bad radiator ,

 

 

what?

not mine , but after i put everything back togather , noticed coolant leaking from bottom of radiator , maybe i hit it with something , not sure, , but 186,000mi on forester, and oem, so needing replaced,